Click here for the Basics of the Environmental Cancer Program
January 14, 2010 
Dear Physician,
Welcome to the Karmanos Cancer Center’s Environmental Cancer Program Homepage.
In conjunction with Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the US Centers for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), it is our hope that working together we can help stop cancers caused by environmental exposures in their earliest stages or before they begin.
The most recent data suggests that over 30% of lung cancers are caused by environmental agents AFTER controlling for smoking.
Because Michigan has a high rate of lung and bronchus cancers and because three environmental carcinogens – asbestos, arsenic and radon, which can have an additive, synergistic or independent effect on tobacco-caused lung cancer - are common in Michigan, we’ve developed a program to help you identify patients at risk.
Details are included in this site, but the basic approach involves on-line CME’s developed by the ATSDR, identification of patients, appropriate diagnostics and treatment in addition to referrals to appropriate specialty centers if needed.
If you are a member of a Blue Cross “PGIP PO”, and are a primary care physician, a pulmonologist, a pediatrician or oncologist as defined by BCBS, Blue Cross will pay you a $500 honorarium on completion of the CME part of the program.
I want to stress to you that this is a new program, never having been attempted before in the United States. There will be learning as we’re going, so I hope you’ll bear with us.
We are phasing in the initiative over six months, with January and February at Providence Hospital in Southfield; March through June at the St. John’s System and then in July, we’ll be statewide.
Sincerely,
Michael R. Harbut, MD, MPH, FCCP
Director, Environmental Cancer Program,
Karmanos Cancer Center
Professor (Clinical), Internal Medicine,
Wayne State University
Chief, Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Potential health hazards from exposure to Gulf oil
Colleagues: In light of the recent events surrounding the Gulf oil spill, I have co-authored a report on the occupational and environmental health hazards that may result from the chemicals in crude oil and dispersants. Our report, Gulf Oil Spill Hazards, discusses the medical science and related issues, as well as how people can take precautions to lessen those effects.
My co-author, Dr. Kathleen Burns, is a toxicologist and director of Sciencecorps, an informal alliance of professionals who provide evaluation, communication, technology and other assistance in environmental and occupational health. Please click the following
link to read the full report.
Dr. Michael Harbut
